The Great Bustard 253 
easily killed, and with AAA shot may be dropped stone-dead at 
80 and even at 100 yards. A pair of guns may thus profitably 
be brought into action. 
Bustards seldom run, but they walk very fast, especially when 
alarmed. Between the inception of a drive and the moment of 
flushing we have known them to cover half a mile, and many 
drives fail owing to game having completely altered its original 
position. Instances have occurred of bustards walking over the 
dividing ridge, to the amazement of the prostrate sportsmen on 
the hither slope. Strange to say, when winged they do not 
make off, but remain where they have fallen, and an old male 
will usually show fight. Of course if left alone and out of sight 
a winged bustard will travel far. 
In weight cock-bustard vary from, say, 20 to 22 lbs. in 
autumn up to 28 to 30 Ibs. in April. The biggest old males in 
spring reach 33 and 34 lbs., and one we presented to the National 
Collection at South Kensington scaled 37 lbs. The breast-bone 
of these big birds is usually quite bare, a horny callosity, owing 
to friction with the ground while squatting, and the heads and 
necks of old males usually exhibit gaps in their gorgeous spring- 
plumage — indicative of severe encounters among themselves. 
Hen-bustard seldom exceed 15 lbs. at any season. 
Bustard are usually found in troops varying. from half-a-dozen 
birds to as many as 50 or 60, and in September we have seen 
200 together. 
Bustard-shooting—by which we mean legitimate driving 
during the winter months, September to April—is necessarily 
uncertain in results. Some days birds may not even be seen, 
though this is unusual, while on others many big bands may be 
met with. Hence it is difficult to put down an average, though 
we roughly estimate a bird a gun as an excellent day’s work. A 
not unusual bag for six guns will be about eight head; but we 
have a note of two days’ shooting in April (in two consecutive 
years) when a party of eight guns, all well-known shots, secured 
21 and 22 bustard respectively, together with a single lesser 
bustard on each day. This was on lands between Alcantarillas 
and Las Cabezas, but it is fair to add that the ground had been 
carefully preserved by the owner and the operation organised 
regardless of expense. 
A minor difficulty inherent to this pursuit is to select the 
